1910] FOREST, GAME AND FISH WARDEN. 49 



pollution question in West Virginia, and especially with the pollution from 

 coal mines. 



I recognize that this is a very difficult proposition to handle and feel I need 

 the advice of those who have had to deal with the coal mine pollution problem. 

 I am today writing to several of the Commissioners of the different States, who 

 are similarly situated, in regard to the pollution, as we are in West Virginia. 

 I will appreciate it very much if you will write me in detail and fulty the 

 methods and manners you use in dealing with pollution problems, and espe- 

 cially the pollution from coal mines. 

 With kind regards, I am, 



Very truly yours, 



J. A. VIQUESNEY, 



Warden. 



August 2, 1911. 

 MR. J. A. VIQUESNEY, 



Forest, Game and Fish Warden, 

 Belington, W. Va. 



DEAR SIR: I regret to say that thus far no method has been discovered by 

 which sulphur water from a mine can be purified, to an extent that will not 

 kill fish. The P. & K. Eailway Company is experimenting with sulphur water, 

 and it has succeeded in so reducing the amount of sulphuric acid that the 

 water can be used in locomotive boilers. We are expecting to carry on experi- 

 ments ourselves this winter and hope to make some headway. 



The prevention of culm waste can easily be accomplished by the mining com- 

 panies putting in a series of basins large enough to allow the polluting material 

 to settle ,and we are taking this matter up with the coal washeries. 



I must confess therefore that we have not made much progress with the 

 pollution from coal operations. Concerning tanneries, the waste from tannic 

 acid is prevented in Pennsylvania and so is the waste from the fleshings, and 

 within the" last few months the Elk Tanning Company has devised a filter 

 plant that will take out at least 90 per cent of the pollution from the washings, 

 and these plants are being installed in the different tanneries of the state 

 as rapidly as possible. The w r aste from the washings is among the most 

 offensive and destructive. 



The filter plant consists first of a basin with a three-eighth inch mesh screen 

 placed about four feet from the bottom. This catches the heaviest of the 

 organic material in the water. The water that comes through the screen is 

 then pumped into a very large filter bed, having from four to six feet of 

 cinders, the water entering at the bottom and carried to the top by small 

 pipes and sprayed over the top. The water is then filtered into a second filter 

 bed in the same manner as into the first, and from that into a third. By that 

 time nearly all the organic matter has been taken out and nothing but a 

 little tannic acid water is left. We have entirely stopped sawmills from 

 emptying into the streams, with the exception of a -few isolated cases, which 

 are stopped as soon as our attention is drawn to them. Thus far there is no 

 known method of purifying entirely the waste from a sulphide paper factory, 

 but the pollution can be greatly reduced. The pollution from paper mills 

 using the soda process can be easily stopped by filtration and neutralization. 



